I sometimes think of the oddest things while lying awake in bed. This morning, at about four, I woke up, cold, and couldn’t get back to sleep. I looked at my alarm, and wondered why time wasn’t decimal. Why doesn’t the clock have 100 minutes instead of 60? And why not ten hours rather than twelve?

I started to do the maths. Assume we keep the second the same, a normal half day lasts 60*60*12 seconds instead of 100*100*10. that’s 43200 normally, instead of 100000 seconds with decitime. To fit decitime in with the normal day, we would have to make seconds shorter.

It then occurred to me that this would mean replacing every clock on earth, which would be very hard indeed. Alternatively, we could slow down the earth’s rotation, which may have implications vis–vis gravity. All in all, although it would make time easier to use in maths, decimalising it would cause more trouble than it’s worth.

It just seems quite a random number – 60. the Hittites came up with it. Oh well, perhaps when I become rich I can include decimalising time in my plan for world domination. [insert sinister laugh; enter the guy in a tuxedo]